Judge blacklistedVincent KahiyaIN a major
indictment of Zimbabwe's electoral process, the European Unionhas extended
its list of Zimbabweans under targeted sanctions to includehead of the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Justice George Chiweshe, theZimbabwe
Independent can reveal.

The new list published on Monday also includes
the ZEC's chief electionsofficer, Lovemore Sekeramayi, and head of the
Electoral SupervisoryCommission, Theophilus Pharoah Gambe.

The
three electoral officers join former elections supremo,Registrar-General
Tobaiwa Mudede, on the list.

The other four ZEC members are however
not on the list.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday, British
Foreign Secretary JackStraw said the new list includes "all senior members
of the new governmentand politburo and senior figures involved in
manipulating the election".

Chiweshe was appointed head of the ZEC by
President Robert Mugabe in Januaryas Zimbabwe made a half-hearted attempt to
ensure the electoral processconformed to Southern African Development
Community standards on democraticelections agreed in Mauritius last year.
The other members of the commissionwere appointed by agreement between Zanu
PF and the opposition MDC.

The credibility of the ZEC was put to the
test a few days after the Marchpoll when the electoral body failed to
reconcile its figures of people whovoted in individual
constituencies.

The electoral officers join ministers and senior
officials in Mugabe'sgovernment who are banned from setting foot in Europe.
Straw said the travelban and asset freeze had been expanded from 95 to 120
names following theMarch election.

"This decision emphasises the
EU's continued concerns about the lack ofdemocracy and respect for human
rights and the rule of law that exists inZimbabwe, and the failure of Mugabe
and his regime to respond tointernational calls for reform," he
said.

The EU's targeted sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe in
February 2002 afterZimbabwe expelled the EU election observer team from the
country.

The ban on senior electoral officers from travelling to
Europe or holdingassets there is further confirmation of Europe's lack of
confidence in thecountry's electoral system.

Despite major
changes in the set-up of the Zanu PF politburo and newappointments to
cabinet, the EU has only removed from the list the names ofthose Zanu PF
officials who died between the time the list was last renewedand now. These
are Witness Mangwende and Enos Chikowore.

Former Information minister
Jonathan Moyo who was expelled from the partyand is now an independent MP
remains on the list, as does former Financeminister Simba Makoni who failed
to land the presidency of the AfricanDevelopment Bank last
month.

New entrants include Information minister and former
ambassador to the UNTichaona Jokonya and his deputy Bright Matonga, Foreign
minister SimbarasheMumbengegwi who spent many years as a diplomat in Europe,
most recently asambassador in London, Water Resources and Infrastructure
Developmentminister Munacho Mutezo, and provincial governors Ray Kaukonde
(MashonalandEast) and Tinaye Chigudu (Manicaland).

Chen
Chimutengwende, who returned to cabinet as Minister of State for Publicand
Interactive Affairs, is now also banned from travelling to Europetogether
with Mugabe's nephew Patrick Zhuwawo who is Science and Technologydeputy
minister.

The additions to the EU list came as Australia this week
announced it wastightening its sanctions regime against Zimbabwe. In a
statement on Tuesday,Foreign Affairs minister Alexander Downer said this was
in response togovernment's demolition of shelters and market stalls in urban
centres.

He said Zimbabweans transiting to a third country through
Australia were nowrequired to have visas. He said the government's actions
had created aninternal refugee crisis at a time of food shortages caused by
economicmismanagement and drought.

"Once again the Mugabe regime
has demonstrated its contempt for basic humanrights and the rule of law,"
Downer said.

Other additions to the list:

Hubert Nyanhongo -
Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications;

Richard Ndlovu - Deputy
Minister for Water Resources and InfrastructuralDevelopment;

RBZ's office falls prey to clean-upShakeman
MugariPOLICE have destroyed an illegal structure which the Reserve Bank used
asits foreign currency-purchasing centre in Kariba.

The building,
which the RBZ leased from a local entrepreneur RhinosTaonameso, was
demolished last week under government's OperationMurambatsvina because it
had not been approved by the Kariba Town Council.

The building also
housed a curio shop belonging to Sabina Mbewe who ismother of MDC
councillor, Rodney Mbewe. The council declared three weeks agothat the
building was illegal.

The RBZ has been operating from the building
since last year. The centre waslocated at the intersection of Main Way and
Windsor Street adjacent toKariba's main fuel service station.

It
had been strategically located on the road to Caribbea Bay Hotel to caterfor
tourists travelling there.

"I think they shifted over the weekend,
they were taking out their furnitureand computers last Saturday," said a
businessman with offices in the samestreet.

Workers at the
purchasing centre have since been sent on indefinite leavewhile the RBZ
makes frantic efforts to get new offices.

By yesterday the central
bank had not found any offices to accommodate itsforeign currency-purchasing
centre.

An official at the RBZ's main exchange control office in
Kariba confirmedthat the centre had been demolished.

"Yes, their
offices were demolished. The building they were using wasillegal. I am sure
it was not on the plan," said the official.

"I am sure they will find
a new office very soon," he said. "Right now theguys (workers at the centre)
are not coming to work, they will resume whennew offices are
found."

People wanting to change their foreign currency now have to
travel about150km to Chirundu border post. The other option is to travel
more than 250kmto Chinhoyi to transact with commercial banks
there.

The move is a huge inconvenience to the few regional and
internationaltourists who are still trickling into Kariba.

The
situation has been made worse by the absence of a commercial bank inKariba
and Karoi. CFX Financial Services, the only remaining bank in Kariba,closed
down in December after it was placed under curatorship.

Banks in
Karoi have also left due to lower business after the destruction ofthe
agricultural sector in the area under the chaotic land reform
programme.

Govt bars help for blitz victimsAugustine
MukaroGOVERNMENT has barred humanitarian groups from assisting thousands
offamilies whose shanty homes and informal businesses were destroyed under
thecontroversial "Operation Murambatsvina" in a move described by observers
asa desperate attempt by government to cover up the catastrophe the
campaignhas created.

The clean-up campaign has left more than 300 000
urban families homeless,jobless and destitute after flea markets, stalls,
tuckshops as well asbackyard lodgings were destroyed.

The
operation, which government alleges is meant to rid urban areas ofcriminals,
has been met with condemnation from all angles.

Diplomatic sources
who had availed food, blankets and medicines to thedestitute victims living
in the open have been told to stop their
activitiesforthwith.

"Some NGOs have now resorted to providing
assistance through churches,"sources said.

"Roman Catholic
churches in Hatcliffe and Mabvuku-Tafara are distributingfood, blankets as
well as other humanitarian assistance to the evictedpeople."

The
United Nations in conjunction with the International Organisation
forMigration and other humanitarian assistance non-governmental
organisationsthis week petitioned government on the deteriorating situation
among thedisplaced families who are in need of food and
shelter.

Senior officials at the Social Welfare ministry, which
approves humanitarianassistance, said governors of provinces had been
ordered to block donorgroups from distributing food and clothes to the
clean-up campaign victimsbecause such aid would expose the shortcomings of
the controversialcampaign.

Officials said government fears that
by allowing donors to intervene, itwould be admitting that its actions have
caused a humanitarian crisis. Sothe donors will be kept away while
government works out solutions.

Last week Manicaland governor Tinaye
Chigudu was reportedly stopping NGOsfrom distributing medicines and food. He
said he had done so only because hewanted to consult with his superiors in
Harare.

Chigudu said: "They came to me with proposals that included
medicines, foodand repatriation. I told them to hold on to the assistance
because I neededto consult my superiors in government.

"There is
a national policy on donations and I cannot go against that. I didnot want
to find myself in the unusual situation of being the only governorworking at
variance with other governors and local authorities. But thatdoes not mean I
banned them."

Government last year ordered that food assistance be
restricted to targetedgroups such as orphans, HIV and Aids patients and the
elderly.

But President Robert Mugabe this month made a U-turn by
accepting World FoodProgramme food assistance to feed an estimated four
million Zimbabweansfacing starvation this year.

With unemployment
at more than 80%, the majority of Zimbabweans depended oninformal trading to
survive, while even those lucky to have a formal jobalso supplement their
inflation-eroded salaries through informal trade.

Economic experts
said the informal sector had become a vital safety net in acountry now in
its sixth year of severe economic recession.

Failure to provide
proper housing by underfunded and generally mismanagedurban councils has
seen the sprouting of illegal peri-urban settlementsaround major cities.

Bulawayo vendors take police to courtLoughty
DubeAS the ongoing nationwide clean-up operation continues, the
BulawayoUpcoming Traders Association (Buta), a grouping of hawkers and
vendors, hasfiled an urgent chamber application in the High Court seeking an
interdictstopping the police from continuing with the operation.

The
urgent chamber application is expected to be heard today at the BulawayoHigh
Court before Justice Maphios Cheda.

The lawyer representing the
vendors, Robert Ndlovu of James, Moyo, Majwabuand Associates, confirmed that
the matter had been set for a hearing.

The latest application by Buta
is among several that have been filed byresidents and hawkers countrywide
challenging the destruction of illegalstructures and the removal of traders
from designated and undesignated areasby the police.

The vendors
have cited the officer commanding Bulawayo Province, MpumeleloSunduza, as
the first respondent while the Commis-sioner of Police,Augustine Chihuri and
the Bulawayo City Council have been cited as these-cond and third
respondents res-pectively.

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, a
fortnight ago filed another HighCourt application in a bid to stop the
police from destroying houses andvending stalls.

"We are advised
and verily believe that the police's actions are illegal andhave no
justification whatsoever.

"We are also advised and verily believe
that if the police force genuinely

intended to carry out a clean-up
exercise as they allege, and if ever therewas anything wrong with the
structures erected by the traders, the formershould have sought and obtained
an order from this honourable court todestroy the structures," the vendors'
court application said.

The vendors allege that the confiscation of
merchandise by the police is adirect violation of the law and contravenes
sections of the CriminalProcedure and Evidence Act.

"We are
further advised and verily believe our members were entitled to begiven
sufficient notice in terms of the law and natural rules of justice toremedy
whatever the police call illegal structures.

"The applicant has no
problem with the police arresting those people tradingwithout licences and
in undesignated areas, but disputes the interference bythe police with
licenced traders carrying on business in their lawfullyallocated bays by the
third respondent," reads the court papers.

The police blitz
countrywide has affected both registered and unregisteredvendors. The
vendors, in their court application, want the police to beinterdicted from
seizing and confiscating merchandise, or interfering withthe occupation, and
trading in the designated areas by licenced traders.

A FRESH and seemingly
irreparable rift has developed between government andNon-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs) over how to help victims ofgovernment's "Operation
Murambatsvina".

A series of meetings between the two parties this week
came to nothing aftergovernment scoffed at NGOs' efforts to alleviate the
plight of thoseaffected by the operation.

In Harare alone an
estimated 300 000 families have been displaced in theclean-up campaign which
started three weeks ago.

Most of them are now camped at Caledonia
farm.

Documents in the possession the Zimbabwe Independent show that
on WednesdayNGOs wanted government to stop the controversial campaign and
allow theprovision of emergency aid to the people who have already been
displaced andare living out in the cold.

"Destruction and
reconstruction cannot run concurrently," says thesubmission made by
NGOs.

"Stop the destruction and re-deploy national efforts and
resources toreconstruction."

The NGOs also proposed mobilisation
of national support towards the masterplan for reconstruction, and
communication to the people on what theoperation has achieved so
far.

Sources privy to the meeting held at Silveira House in Harare on
Wednesdaysaid government turned down the proposal and insisted it was going
aheadwith the operation despite the crisis it had
caused.

"Government wants to force people to the rural areas," civic
sources said.

"Churches and NGOs who have housed or helped the displaced
people have beenlabelled enemies of the operation and told to
stop."

The government delegation that rejected the NGOs' proposals
comprisedministers of Local Government Ignatious Chombo, Agriculture Joseph
Made,Home Affairs deputy minister Ruben Marumahoko, and Harare governor
DavidKarimanzira.

The sources said government remains suspicious
of NGOs.

However, NGOs have insisted that they cannot ignore a
humanitarian crisis.

"We are sitting in limbo," a Roman Catholic priest
whose parish has beenproviding services to displaced people, said in a
separate interview.

"We cannot ignore the poor when they come to us
for assistance. Governmentwants us to provide people with bus fares to go to
rural areas but not allthe displaced people have rural
homes."

According to the documents, at the meeting the NGOs stated
that there weresix categories of people who have been directly affected by
the currentoperation.

The affected have been classified as
homeseekers, vendors, informal traders,home industrialists, children and
vulnerable groups.

"Homeseekers were people who have been staying in
overcrowded hostels,backyard shacks as well as tenants and lodgers," the
NGOs said.

"Over the years, they had become organised into housing
co-operatives, mostof which are registered. The clean up exercise has
displaced most of thesepeople.

"The elderly, orphans, disabled,
terminally ill and child-headed householdshave not been
spared."

Despite the ongoing negotiations and pressure from the
outside world toconvince government that its campaign was inhuman, four
housingco-operatives were demolished this week.

The volatile
Chitungwiza has become the latest victim of government'sclean-up yesterday.
- Staff Writer.

Forex auction rate close to $10 000Godfrey
MarawanyikaTHE foreign currency auction rate this week drew closer to $10
000 againstthe United States dollar while the number of rejected bids has
increasedsharply.

The central bank adjusted its diaspora rate by 45%
from $6 200 to $9 000last month.

On Monday the auction rate had
moved to $9 922,59 against the US dollar,overtaking the diaspora
rate.

The new auction rate is likely to be offered as the diaspora
price.

On Monday the central bank availed US$12,5 million on the
auction, and 6 927bids were submitted with 6 739 being
rejected.

The highest bid submitted was $9 999,87 against the US
dollar, with thelowest bid at $9 638,68.

Another auction held on
June 6 had US$12,5 million on offer and received 6373 bids.

At
least 6 224 bids were rejected.

The highest bid accepted on that day
was $9 514,99 per US dollar, with thelowest bid at $9 495 per US
dollar.

The weighted average accepted on June 6 was $9 499,07 for
every greenback.

On June 2, the central bank placed US$12,5 million
on offer and received 3204 bids. About 3 029 were
rejected.

During this auction, the highest bid accepted was $9 503
for every US unit,with the lowest bid accepted being $9
479,25.

The auction system was introduced by the central bank on
January 12 lastyear on the recommendations of the Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries.

When the auction system began the amount on offer was US$5
million persession which translated to US$40 million per month. This was
increased toUS$68 million monthly in May last year.

The
introduction of the auction system was meant to stabilise the exchangerate
and allow easier access to foreign currency by exporters and to killthe
ubiquitous black market but this has not been the case over the past
16months.

The central bank last month refused to devalue the
currency arguing thatthis on its own would not open the floodgates to
foreign currency.

Urban poor pay price for decades of state failureRay
Matikinye/Takawira MapfumoTHE first assumption one makes on witnessing the
tortuous queue at CaledoniaFarm on the outskirts of Tafara is of people
lining up for scarcecommodities such as sugar and flour.

But these
are the new settlers of the recently-established transit campawaiting their
turn to use the only available toilet.

An evictee who identified
himself only as Goori said each resident has tobook first before using the
toilet.

"Mototanga manyoresa kumapurisa uko kana muchida toilet,"
(You have toregister first with the police officers if you wish to use the
toilet) Goorisaid.

The farmhouse provides the only toilet facility
for the camp thataccommodates more than 30 families.

Richard
Mufaro, another settler, feared a cholera outbreak.

"The situation
becomes unbearable especially if one develops stomach

problems. And if
anyone were to catch diarrhoea then we will all be dead inno time at
all."

People who find the toilet queues too trying and frustrating
resort torelieving themselves in the bush creating serious health hazards in
theholding camp.

Caledonia Farm, which is only a few kilometres from
Mabvuku, is thegovernment's latest holding camp where desperate victims of
the ongoingclean-up campaign are being dumped.

There are
manifestly inadequate infrastructure and resources to cater forthe needs of
settlers who continue to be dumped on the farm.

As dusk breaks,
55-year old Jethro Mutamba gets up from a boulder, stoopsand takes great
care to enter his fragile, makeshift plastic hovel that hasserved as his
shelter for the past week.

He scans the horizon towards his former
home before letting his eyes rangeover scores of bodies huddled together for
warmth on the bare ground.

When he tilts his head to gaze at the clear
winter skies above, he shakeshis head.

"We are exposed and do not
have food," he complains, adding that governmentcould not have chosen a
worse time of the year to evict the families thannow.

"It seems
government is eager to penalise us after failing to tackle
rampantunemployment and homelessness," he says.

Mutamba is one of
several thousand Hatcliffe Extension residents who hadtheir homes demolished
because Dare Remusha housing cooperative was unawarethat government had
cancelled the lease on land where it had built.

Hundreds of families forcibly evicted from settlements in
and around Hararewhere families had settled at the height of the
controversial and oftenviolent land invasions four years ago and dumped at
Caledonian Farm faceserious hardships.

A visit to the farm by the
Zimbabwe Independent this week revealed thatliving conditions at the camp
resembled detention centres of the 1970s warperiod. Except for the
farmhouse, which has already been turned into acentral security office,
there is virtually no infrastructure to accommodatethe swelling population
at the farm.

Household furniture that includes beds, wardrobes and
sofas, lie littered inthe tall thatch as people await screening by
authorities. Although thegovernment has promised alternative land to settle,
settlers are sceptical.

"What was wrong with where we were?" asks a woman
who says this is thesecond time in less than five years that she has been
evicted. "First wewere dumped at Porta Farm, then Hatcliffe Extension and
now this?" the45-year-old mother of four lamented.

The forced
removals have swelled the number of homeless and landless acrossthe
country.

This destruction of homes and livelihoods is
reminiscent of dark periods inother countries' histories such as Scotland's
Highland Clearances or, morerecently, the forced removals in apartheid South
Africa or the destructionof Palestinian communities, according to Reverend
Dr Iain Whyte,vice-convenor of the Zimbabwe Scotland
Group.

During what became known as the Highland Clearances, tens of
thousands ofmen, women and children were evicted, often violently, from
their homes tomake way for large-scale sheep farming by avaricious
landowners.

The authorities here, echoing colonial sentiments, have
said people shouldgo back to where they came from.

Mohadi's sister booedSavious Kwinika, recently in
Zhove, BeitbridgeAN attempt by Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi's sister,
Patricia, tohijack a Canadian Embassy ceremony for party purposes hit a snag
when localchiefs and civil servants told her to stop politicising
development projectsmeant to benefit the whole community.

Introducing
dignitaries at the commissioning of a $200 millionmicro-irrigation project
funded by the Canadian International DevelopmentAgency at Zhove Dam, the
minister's sister started chanting Zanu PF slogans,praising the party's
ability to feed the nation.

Instead of responding, as is routine at
such gathering, the crowd booed,accusing her of hijacking donor-funded
projects in the name of Zanu PF.

Patricia was speaking in her Venda
language when she stirred the hornet'snest. "Phannda namavu. Phannda naudi
shumela, Phannda na Zanu PF." (Forwardwith the land, with self-help
empowerment. Forward with Zanu PF) chanted theminister's sister much to the
chagrin of the crowd.

Patricia praised Zanu PF for implementing the
Zhove project that waswholly-funded by the Canadians and is administered by
Compassion Ministries.Headmen Siyoka, Mbedzi, civil servants and
international visitors from asfar as the United States, Canada and the
United Kingdom found it repulsiveand bowed their heads in shame.Headman
Siyoka, who was among the invitedguests, praised the Canadians for fighting
hunger in the drought-pronedistrict.

He condemned attempts by
local politicians and individuals to politicise theproject, arguing that
such hypocrisy and ingratitude scared away donors.

The people of
Beitbridge have not harvested anything this season and we arebattling to
survive due to the severe shortage of maize grain. Hunger isstill with us as
the maize is still trickling in from South Africa.

I would like to
thank the Canadian ambassador Mr (John) Schramm forchannelling $200 million
towards the micro-irrigation project which has seenthe local community in
Zhove realising a meaningful harvest," Headman Siyokasaid. Speaking at the
same function, Schramm said he was happy that thelocal community had put the
money to good use. Zimbabweans, he said, wereready and able to help
themselves given initial assistance.

The Canadian government is
funding several rural community projects inMasvingo, the Midlands and
Matabeleland provinces.

Tougher Posa penalties on the wayRay
MatikinyeGOVERNMENT is set to amend the Public Order and Security Act (Posa)
toimpose heavier penalties on journalists and media houses which
publishstories deemed to be false or prejudicial to the state.

The
stiffer penalties are part of a raft of amendments under the GeneralLaws
Amendment Bill currently before parliament.

The amendments will see
fines for contravening sections of the Act shoot upby between 400% and
800%.

Journalists and media houses found guilty of publishing or
communicatingwhat is deemed false statements prejudicial to the state now
face a fine of$2 million, up from $100 000.

Dozens of journalists
have been arrested and charged under Posa whichanalysts say is as egregious
as its sibling the Access to Information andProtection of Privacy
Act.

Penalties for harbouring, concealing or failing to report an
insurgent,bandit, saboteur or terrorist are set to be raised from $200 000
to $3million while causing disaffection among the police and defence forces
willattract a fine of $800 000 from the previous $20 000.

The 45
proposed sectional amendments to Posa have an overall effect ofstrengthening
a law that has already received condemnation from both localand
international human rights organisations.

Many of the amendments will
empower law enforcement agents to trample oncivic liberties.

For
undermining the authority of, or insulting the president, the penaltyhas
been stiffened to attract a fine of $400 000. In the past, convictionunder
the same section of Posa attracted a $20 000 fine.

In order to deter
rioters from throwing missiles at persons or motorvehicles, parliament will
be asked to approve a fine of $3 million whilepersons caught in a gathering
abetting riot, disorder or intolerance willfork out $2 million in fines. For
assaulting or resisting a peace officer,the charge now attracts a $3 million
fine, up from $100 000.

ZANU PF activist pastor
Obadiah Msindo of Destiny for Afrika Network isappealing for financial
assistance from the party after the Christian outfitused up its resources in
political campaigns for the March election.

Msindo is under siege from
members of his 21st Century Housing Cooperativewho are demanding their money
back after structures built on the stands soldby the network were demolished
by police.

In documents to hand, Msindo said the network was broke
after using itsresources during the campaign period and that they were now
waiting forreimbursements from the party.

Msindo's letters to
Zanu PF's secretary for finance David Karimanzira, and aMr Kanengoni, deputy
director of social services, reveal that the networkplunged into financial
difficulties soon after the elections.

"Our Network is however
experiencing financial difficulties that arethreatening to cripple our
operations," said Msindo in a letter dated May31.

"We used most of
our resources during the campaign period and are stillawaiting payments and
reimbursement from various people. Issues of salariesand other overheads
have become critical and urgent."

Mugabe lashed out at six cabinet ministers who had attended the
bi-annualmeeting of the Committee on Financial and Economic Affairs,
accusing them ofresorting to "blame shifting", sources said. He also
castigated seniorministers for failing to come up with a working economic
recovery programme.

The meeting held on Wednesday last week was
attended by six of the eightministers who sit on the Committee on Financial
and Economic Affairs. It ismade up of ministers whose portfolios are
directly linked to the economy andmeets twice a year. Sources said Mugabe,
who chairs the committee, alsoattacked some ministers for giving misleading
economic indicators andfailing to perform.

Tourism minister Francis Nhema and Energy and Power
Development ministerMike Nyambuya did not attend. Nhema says he was in
Victoria Falls meetingcounterparts from South Africa and Mozambique while
Nyambuya was out of thecountry last week.

Mugabe, the sources
say, was "deeply disturbed" by the state of theagricultural sector,
especially the winter wheat situation. In ano-holds-barred approach Mugabe
is understood to have quizzed Made on theprogress of the winter wheat crop.
Although Made has publicly announced thatthe government was planning to put
85 000 hectares under wheat, statisticssuggest only 20 000ha have been
planted.

Mugabe is also said to have queried the figures for the
winter maize cropand pushed for a specific response on the food
situation.

"It was a tense meeting and everyone was quizzed," the
source said. "It wasreally tense. Apparently the president thought that some
of the guys(ministers) were not doing enough," he said.

Mushowe
came under heavy fire over the ongoing chaos at Air Zimbabwe and theNational
Railways of Zimbabwe, the source said.

"(Mugabe) told the ministers
to stop complaining about sanctions and foreigncurrency shortages and find a
solution to the problems," the source said.

Murerwa, however, denied that
the ministers had been grilled. He said therewas nothing "sinister" about
the meeting.

"It was a meeting to review both the fiscal and monetary
policy," Murerwasaid. "It wasn't an extraordinary meeting. It was a
scheduled meeting wheregeneral information about the economy was discussed,"
he said.

Mbeki shows Mugabe how it's
donePRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday fired his deputy Jacob Zuma
fromgovernment. Zuma had been fingered in the corruption case in which the
HighCourt in Durban two weeks ago convicted the deputy president's
financialadviser, Schabir Shaik.

The judge in the case, Hilary
Squires, described the pair's relationship as"generally corrupt". There were
immediate calls for Zuma to resign and beprosecuted. Mbeki this week moved
swiftly to remove Zuma from the secondmost powerful post in government. His
rationale was simple. He would poisonthe air for South Africa which risked
being branded a corrupt investmentdestination.

From this side of the
Limpopo River, however, it was unprecedented. Sincethe sentencing of Shaik
there have been howls of support for Zuma in thestate media. Suddenly
commiserations were being heaped on the Communistparty stalwart.

The
fact that the court said Zuma was a participant in corruption
wasconveniently ignored. His liberation war credentials were viewed as
moreimportant, superseding the alleged graft.

He became a victim of
an imperialist plot and racial calumny, as personifiedby Justice Squires who
presided over the case. In the best tradition ofstate-media plots, the
ruling by Judge Squires became a Western attempt todiscredit liberation
movements in the region.

A columnist in the state media writing on
Tuesday tried vaingloriously todraw parallels between the disgraced Zuma and
President Mugabe.

"Like Zimbabwean President Mugabe, Zuma has been tried
and convicted in theSouth African media," the columnist
proffered.

"The parallels with Zimbabwe do not end there, for the South
African andZimbabwean justice systems still have a lot in common, though
Zimbabwe hasinvested a lot to transform the judiciary," he
said.

Based on this ill-informed summation, President Mbeki performed an
unAfricanact of firing a liberator accused of dabbling in corruption. The
attempt todraw parallels between President Mugabe and Zuma - as victims of a
Westernconspiracy - and to deify both is an infantile endeavour to
ring-fenceerrant leaders from public censure.

President Mbeki,
despite domestic pressure and muffled noises from theregion in support of
Zuma, did the right thing. In dealing with Zuma, Mbekihad to weigh between
issues of national importance and protecting along-time comrade.

The
tendency in Africa is to choose the latter. Mbeki, according to Zuma'scamp,
had to protect the deputy president because of history and maintainingthe
power balance in the ruling coalition.

Mbeki's decision could unsettle
the political chemistry of the ruling orderin South Africa but it guarantees
economic stability, direct foreigninvestment and protects the country from
flight of capital.

There was endorsement of the decision from big
business which saw the moveas strengthening Mbeki's resolve when he takes
Africa's case before G8leaders in Scotland next month.

Mbeki had to
act in the spirit of Nepad's peer review mechanism. This was apowerful
statement to the continent that he was committed to weeding outmisfeasance
in governance. Without that commitment, Africa's renaissancewould be
doomed.

We need that boldness in our government today. The public
sector,parastatals and sections of the private sector have become citadels
ofcorruption and inefficiency. Errant officers have continued to occupy
theiroffices despite their well-documented record of plunder.

This is
the cancer President Mugabe must deal with if we are to believe
hiscommitment to fighting corruption and fostering a culture of efficiency
inthe public sector.

We all recall the pardoning of ministers and
senior party officials whoplayed major roles in the Willowgate scandal. The
minister responsible forthe VIP Housing Scandal in the mid 1990s was never
held to account. This isthe same with senior officials who looted the War
Victims Compensation Fund.They still form the core of Mugabe's
government.

His government has to date not accounted for Zimbabwe's
"investments" in theDemocratic Republic of Congo. Where are the dividends,
Mr President? We haveseen numerous commissions being appointed by the
president to probewrongdoing and the results never
published.

Inefficiency is also rewarded in Mugabe's government. Joseph
Made wasre-appointed to the Agriculture portfolio despite almost starving
the nationthree years ago. The results of this incubation of corruption
andinefficiency are manifest.

Zimbabwe has remained a poor country
with high unemployment because no onewants to invest here. All this because
Mugabe has engaged heavily inenhancing the camaraderie forged among his
peers in the 1970s at the expenseof development and progress in the 21st
century.

That is poor politics and Zimbabweans deserve better. Mbeki has
shown theway in dealing decisively with comrades who allegedly demand
kickbacks.Zimbabwe's tolerance of corruption will leave us increasingly
isolated in acontinent where standards of public behaviour are undergoing
change.

A MOUNTING threat to the newspaper industry is
emerging in the wake ofthe country's still-untamed inflation rate. If it
remains unchecked, it willnot only cripple newspapers but also harm an
important vehicle of educationand information - one of the props of
democracy.

I am talking about newsprint costs. All the major titles
in thecountry are already hard put to balance the growing costs of
production.

Our readers have to brace themselves for another
round of increases inthe cover price of the Zimbabwe Independent. It is a
debilitating businessto me because I believe news should reach target
audiences without themfeeling the pinch in their pockets.

I
consider the failure by the general public to access information dueto the
high costs of media as an assault on their freedom to
accessinformation.

The rule of thumb is that the price of a
newspaper should be such thatit does not compete with goods and services
required for basic sustenance.

South African newspapers
circulating in Zimbabwe, the Mail & Guardianand the Sunday Times, are
now priced cheaper than newspapers printed andpublished here. The two papers
now cost $15 000 and $20 000 respectively.

The Zimpapers stable
this week increased the cover prices of all itspublications by at least 50%.
We will be following suit next week probablytogether with our competitor,
the Financial Gazette. The price of theIndependent will be going up to $20
000.

It is an understatement to say that there is a crisis
brewing in thenewspaper industry due to the ballooning production costs
fuelled by theunremitting increases in the price of newsprint. The sole
manufacturer ofnewsprint, Mutare Board & Paper Mills, has not hesitated
to pass on itsproduction costs to publishing houses.

The
rate and frequency of increments this year have been excruciatingto say the
least. Where is the Competition Commission in dealing with thisdamaging
monopoly?

Since February, the paper manufacturer has raised the
price ofnewsprint from $7 576 472 to $16 632 038 a tonne, with the latest
increasecoming on Monday last week. Another hike had been dumped on
publishers onJune 1! The price of newsprint has gone up 120% since the
beginning of theyear. There is a good likelihood that the cost of producing
newspapers couldgo up by over 300% this year alone if the current trend is
maintained.

The total increase for the whole of last year was about
100%.

Newsprint is the principal raw material of a newspaper and
togetherwith printing costs should account for about 30% of total production
costs.At our sister publication, the M&G, newsprint and printing costs
amount tobetween 25% and 30% of the production bill.

The
figure here is 73%. We have therefore been forced to raise thecover price to
mitigate the effects of the escalating production costs. Therate of increase
in the cover price is however still way below that ofproduction
costs.

For example, at the launch of the paper in 1996 street
sales alonewere enough to cover all production costs and in some instances
paysalaries.

Revenue from advertising all headed for the bottom
line on the balancesheets.

During that period, the wheels
of industry were still turning in theright direction. There was high
consumer demand for goods and services.There was competition among
retailers, hence ad-spend was large. By the way,inflation at the time was
around 15%.

This was a period when we had the luxury of using
imported newsprintwhich did not turn yellow in less than a week. The
printing stayed sharpeven after the newspaper had gone through dozens of
hands and picturereproduction was brilliant (even though pictures were
largely black andwhite).

Today we pay a premium for poor
quality newsprint that breaksconstantly during printing and jams the
printing press. The paper cannot sitin the hot sun for long without changing
colour.

The paper manufacturer has just told us they can no
longer supply thepeach newsprint used to print the businessdigest because of
the shortage ofthe dye used to colour the paper. We have no idea what's next
in store!

But the cost of this deteriorating service and
products has kept goingup like everything else in the country. We are buying
expensive bread whichappears to have been manufactured from chicken mash.
Bakeries are sellingmeat pies with anything but meat for stuffing. We pay a
fortune to garageswhich pretend to service our vehicles only to steal fuel
and fail to fitpromised new parts.

We also pay huge taxes
to a government which has failed to providebasic health, education and
infrastructure to the nation. Then there arethings like road tax and carbon
tax that are not used for their intendedpurpose.

We have grown
to accept this as normal.

We however promise to provide a good
read every week even onpoor-quality paper because we have a professional
obligation to do so.Please bear with us.

THE opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) now faces a
stern testof public support after failing to exploit a groundswell of mass
discontentfollowing "Operation Murambatsvina", critics say.

Coming
hard on the heels of yet another failure to capitalise on a uniquechance
occasioned by public disillusionment over the March poll results,doubts are
growing whether the party has what it takes as a crediblealternative to Zanu
PF.

Analysts say MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's credibility has been
damaged bythe relative inertia that followed the March election.

The
International Crisis Group (ICG) says in the wake of another stolenelection,
the MDC must decide whether to adopt a more confrontational
andextra-parliamentary position despite the real prospect that any
streetprotests risk attracting the full repressive power of the security
services.

Public confidence in the MDC as an alternative to Zanu PF
sagged when theopposition failed to rally people to protest against a rigged
ballot andfurther sank when the party hesitated to provide timeous
leadership inconfronting government over the demolition of housing
settlements around thecountry.

The Brussels-based think-tank says the
MDC should establish a clear positionon the next steps and the best way to
exert pressure on the government.

But MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirayi
thinks otherwise.

"People blame us for not organising protests against
the government. But howdo you organise a person whose immediate priority is
to see where his familyis going to sleep or eat next?" he asked.

"You
cannot tell a person preoccupied with finding alternative accommodationfor
his family or a temporary place to keep his belongings to join a
protestmarch," he says of charges by critics that the MDC should have seized
theopportunity provided by the unpopular clean-up operation to rally
peopleagainst the regime.

Another source of doubts about the MDC
capability to rally public protest isthe two-day job boycott called by the
Broad Alliance, in which MDC was a keyally. Critics say the opposition
undermined the strike call by waiting untilthe eve of the work boycott to
back it.

"I think the MDC has failed to provide dynamic leadership," said
MikeDavies, chairman of the Combined Harare Residents' Association, also
part ofthe Broad Alliance.

What is apparent, though, is that the
worker constituency that the MDCdepended on to launch successful mass job
boycotts in the past has beenweakened by rampant unemployment as Zimbabwe's
economy implodes following asuccession of damaging policies. And MDC
relations with the ZimbabweCongress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) appear
strained.

At one time, ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibebe charged
that theparty had treated the trade unions as "a caterpillar that digs the
road, andas soon as it is smooth and ready for use, the caterpillar is
banished andpunished if it tries to drive on it".

According to the
ICG report released this month, the real fault line in theMDC is its
inability to continue to mobilise people on the route of massdemocratic
resistance, mass action and other forms of struggle outside theelectoral
channels. The absence of what people call a "Plan B" and theweakness in the
civic alliance that emerged before the election are the realthreats to the
MDC.

The MDC appears somewhat disoriented in its focus by constant
detentions andharassment of its members, as much as it has been by the
suppression of mostof the independent press.

The party's secretary
for legal affairs David Coltart defended the party'sposition over the rigged
ballot arguing that it did not want to trigger abloodbath that would
certainly ensue if it had taken the mass protestoption. Mugabe was prepared
to unleash his repressive machinery to suppressany protest, he
says.

Another factor undermining public confidence in the opposition
party was itsindecision over participation in the March poll. Less than a
month beforethe poll, it announced it would do so "under protest and with a
heavy heart",reversing an August 2004 conditional boycott.

Only
severe pressure to compete from its membership and international actorswho
believed its parliamentary influence had toned down Zanu PF policycompelled
it to change its stance.

Tsvangirai summed up his party dilemma: "We are
damned if we participate,and damned if we don't".

Such wavering
appears to have dampened public confidence in the MDC.

ICG says the party
is struggling to maintain unity across a number ofstrategic, leadership,
ideological, ethnic and even generational faultlines. These divisions have
made a coherent and consistent oppositionapproach in the post-election
situation more difficult.

But Tsvangirai says people should realise that
the environment in which theparty currently operates has
changed.

"There is need for us to evaluate our strategies in a changed
politicalenvironment because we cannot continue to use the same strategy as
in thepast. We have to take cognisance of the serious paradigm shift that
hasoccurred in the five years. Prior to 2000, there was neither Posa
nor Aippa," he says

He says while party supporters would want to see
the MDC take radicalaction, the party no longer has faith in one-off events
which the regimewill certainly crush.

"Democratic forces know when to
attack and when to regroup. The fundamentalissue is that the people must be
prepared for sustained action. We needprotracted action that results in a
systematic wearing down of the pillarsof the regime," Tsvangirai says.

Bad-mouthing Zim doing us no goodBy Msekiwa
MakwanyaTHE challenges in Zimbabwe have been so tremendous that some
"weak-willed"and unprincipled have started to reject their identity as
Zimbabweans.

It is not unusual to find Zimbabweans in the diaspora who
now claim to beSouth Africans, for example. There are also those of us who
never miss theopportunity to denigrate everything Zimbabwean.

The
most hopeless of Zimbabweans are those who have ignored the resilienceof the
majority of Zimbabweans and those who claim they will never return
toZimbabwe. Resilience is not a weakness, it is strength.

People
have their choices and Zimbabwe does not need those who are not readyfor its
challenges.

Meaningless and ill-advised stayaways like the one that
has just failedsimply feed into the negativity and pessimism that afflict
some peoplealready.

Some people in the diaspora have expressed
the view that Zimbabweans

are docile and that they analyse so much that
they cannot even act in theend.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr called
this the "paralysis of analysis". It isbetter to have people who analyse too
much and act less than those who donot analyse enough and act too
much.

It is equally important for people to take action that they
feel inspired totake. For anyone to expect Zimbabweans to engage in endless
stayawayswithout a result is to take them for granted.

Questions
have been asked about the nature of leadership of the BroadAlliance over the
failed stayaway on June 9 and 10.

The media has captured some
very sad stories of the affected people and thepictures spoke louder than
the stayaway. For anyone to expect these peopleto organise and rise against
the government is to miss the basic point: "Youdo not fight from a point of
weakness".

When children have no food and no shelter in this winter,
a reasonableparent cannot start action that would attract the ruthless
machinery of thestate. Even if you have shelter and food, it would be very
dangerous tostart jambanja (mass action) when other people have nowhere to
hide or toput their property.

After the failure of the stayaway,
some people have started callingZimbabweans cowards, docile and hopeless.
Part of the reason for suchillusion has been created by press reports which
have been portraying theeconomy as collapsing since 2003.

Some
people then fail to understand how a collapsing economy can handle
massaction. One of the reasons why some people vow not to return to Zimbabwe
isbecause they think the economy has collapsed.

Whatever
challenges our country is facing people should remain united. Weshould not
be united against our own country. People have their prioritiesand mass
action maybe in conflict with their priorities which have to
berespected.

Zimbabwe is not like Somalia or Afghanistan yet some
people talk aboutZimbabwe as if it is the worst place on earth. We might
have our differencesbut let us not take them too far and reject our
identity.

Some people wonder why some governments are now returning
failed asylumseekers to Zimbabwe. Part of the reason is that they no longer
believe someof the stories about our country and are disgusted by our own
attitudetowards our country.

"If you hate your own country how
much would you hate a foreign one?" theyask themselves.

Of course
there are bad things going on in Zimbabwe but there are also somevery good
things going on as well which we should speak about too
withpride.

It is in these strengths or positive things that we
should put our hope andnot negative issues. Let us build on our strengths
while we confront ourweaknesses. We should not get stuck in
negativities.

The problem is that some speak so badly about Zimbabwe
that you would thinkit is a speciality that they are paid for. Zimbabwe has
not collapsed andthose who love the country are happy to see Zimbabwe still
going. How farwill it go? No one has been able to answer this
question.

*Msekiwa Makwanya is a social commentator based in England.
Contact can bemade through makwanya@yahoo.com.

Flea markets are free marketsBy Rejoice
NgwenyaTHE era of Zimbabwe's greatest economic boom can be traced back to
thedecade of 1989 to 1999 when the swan song of fiscal practitioners was
theEconomic Structural Adjustment Programme (Esap). To the uninitiated,
themeteoric increase and proliferation of vendors and flea markets in
Harareand beyond was a natural phenomenon - yet the enlightened will tell
you thatit was a calculated, premeditated move by the government to unleash
theentrepreneurial zeal of its citizenry.

It is deregulation that
broke the monopolistic stranglehold of publictransport and uninspiring
advertising billboards. It is deregulation thatexposed shoppers to the
tantalising world-class merchandise range insupermarkets and global clothing
brands. In short, government not onlyembraced the virtues of a "liberated"
economy that saw its citizens slideeffortlessly into the family of global
trade, but took money and placed itright into the pockets of those who would
have forever been condemned to theback streets of poverty.

As far
back as 1995, in a study titled "The growth of flea markets in Hararein the
context of Esap", Richard Kamidza wrote: "The harsh economicenvironment that
has thrown many people out of employment, the desire tobeat the ever-rising
cost of living, the failure to secure employmentparticularly among the
country's educated youths and the liberalisedpolitical and economic
environment are some of the forces that necessitatedthe opening up of new
indigenous concerns in the form of flea markets."

Again in 1995, a
speech by the Minister of Home Affairs, Dumiso Dabengwa ata meeting
entitled: "Conference on Deregulation: Harmonising the Interestsof Business
in Local Authorities", states: "In these harsh economic times,street vending
not only creates employment but is also a valuable source ofincome.
Therefore from a moral, social and economic point of view, harassingand
arresting people who are trying to earn an honest living seems to be
tooharsh and unwarranted."

At the same conference, the
Attorney-General, Patrick Chinamasa, said: "Ithink we are all agreed that
deregulation is the bulldozer, so to speak,which will help pave the way
leading to indigenous participation andinvolvement in the national
economy."

Leon Louw, executive director of the Free Market Foundation
of SouthernAfrica, lent credence to the theory that there is a direct
relation betweena command economy and oppression: "Regulation of
micro-enterprises in SouthAfrica was an integral part of black oppression
under apartheid. Virtuallyall forms of entrepreneurship by black South
Africans were prohibited."

As near as 1998, Cephas Msipa presented a
paper where he stated: "Theinformal sector is one sector that offers us the
greatest hope to eradicatepoverty and unemployment."

Even without
so much as referring to the official character and nature ofderegulation, we
know that some of the greatest entrepreneurs this countryhas ever seen are a
product of unrestricted, free thinking adventure intosmall-time business. To
mind comes citizens like Ben Mucheche, PhillipChiyangwa, Ray Kaukonde,
Strive Masiyiwa and Nigel Chanakira. The history ofpioneers of cottage
engineering like Guy Georgias, transport moguls in themould of the late FP
Hall, Matambanadzo et al will testify that it is anenvironment that allows
for and encourages individual creativity thatrewards an
economy.

In his book on economic foxes and hedgehogs, Clem Sunter
claims foxesnaturally believe in decentralisation of power and letting
people do theirown thing. Hedgehogs are natural centralisers since they
think they knowbest and like to feel that society depends on them. In his
presentationentitled "Entrepreneurship - the key to Zimbabwe's future",
Sunter wasquoted as saying: "Foxes say: "Siya so!" Hedgehogs cannot
understand howanybody can work for themselves and regard the small business
sector as arefugee camp for those who have failed to find conventional
jobs."

Deregulation is about creating suitable conditions for those
who are capableof exploring legitimate means of wealth creation. In a world
where extremistsocial scientists want to drag innocent minds to the gung-ho
school ofthought that liberalisation is anarchist, I condemn them to the "E"
class ofpopulism. The United Nations conceived Human Development Index (HDI)
hasproven beyond reasonable doubt that too much government interference in
thelives of citizens is linked to abject poverty.

Fair enough,
one cannot, and does not need to guarantee fair or equitabledistribution of
wealth in a world where we have different potential. Mypoint is that it is
the duty of government to ensure that everyone isexposed to an opportunity,
much like access to education. Period! Once atyour desk, it is your hard
work that counts. Of course the poor, the weakand the physically challenged
should be protected - only as far as access topublic funds is concerned.
This is a moral obligation not of governmentalone, but also society in
general. The government should seek the supportof both the affected and the
victims, not by decree, but by consent.

Cosmetics and toiletries
mogul Tony Gara, then as Deputy Minister of LocalGovernment, Rural and Urban
Development, was a convert to deregulation. In1995 he said: "The
deregulation currently in progress in Zimbabwe is anintegral part of Esap .
aimed at striking the balance between regulationsand controls on the one
hand and the facilitation and fostering ofentrepreneurship on the other. The
essence of successful deregulation is thereduction of the number of
regulatory and institutional barriers controllingand restricting the entry
of aspiring entrepreneurs, and of informalentrepreneurs into the
recognisably and measurably productive sector."

Gara did not advocate
an anarchist business and trade practices environmentin urban areas, but ".
local authorities (should) seek ways and means ofassisting the vendors and
hawkers and ensure that they conduct theiroperations in accordance with the
basic requirements as regards publichealth, public order or safety rather
than continue to institute onlypunitive measures against vendors regardless
of the descriptions of theirtrade."

In conclusion, I would like
to caution my enthusiasm about unrestrictedtrade practices, for I am a
stickler for order and quality. Pavements arenot the best place for SMEs to
conduct their trade. Ratepayers for theconvenience of both customers and
businesspersons finance pavements.

Also it is not all products that come
from China that pass the test ofsuperiority. And yet I still do not advocate
government restrictions andcontrol, for I am free to
choose.

The
central bank has the power to place a bank under the management of acurator
without consulting government. Now the Ministry of Finance wants tobe
consulted first, it has been learnt.

Government is amending the
Banking Act so that it is consulted before abanking institution can be shut
down.

Government also wants to be informed if there are going to be
significant

changes in the shareholding structure of any
bank.

Official sources said the Banking Act would be amended to allow
for widerconsultation before drastic action is taken to either close down or
place afinancial institution under a curator, with devastating consequences
for thebanking public. Last year thousands of people were affected when
10financial institutions were placed under the management of curators
whileothers were forced into liquidation at short notice.

The
sources said the financial sector blitz last year hit a number of
seniorpoliticians who had either invested in the affected banks through
proxies orhad their accounts affected.

"Before cancelling a
banking institution's registration in terms ofsubsection (1), the Registrar
(of banks) shall (a) through the governor,consult the minister and (b) after
the consultation notify in writing thebanking institution concerned that he
proposes to cancel the institution'sregistration and of his reasons to do
so," the government said in a notice.

"Before approving the
acquisition of a significant interest in a bankinginstitution, the registrar
shall, through the governor, consult the ministerand shall provide the
minister with such information regarding the proposedacquisition as the
minister may reasonably require."

Also placed under the compulsory six-month
closure was Intermarket BankingCorporation and Intermarket Discount
House.

In January, the central bank merged Trust Bank and Royal Bank
to form theZimbabwe Allied Banking Group.

The banks placed under
curators were deemed to be in poor financialpositions and were also accused
of diverting from their core bankingbusiness.

According to the
RBZ's January report on the status of capital deficiency attroubled banking
institutions, Intermarket Banking Corporation needs aminimum of $18,15
billion to restore normal operations, while the discountdivision requires
$172,53 billion.

IMF to meet local bankers, auditorsGodfrey
MarawanyikaTHE International Monetary Fund (IMF) Article IV consultation
team whicharrived in the country last week is set to meet directors of eight
localbanks to discuss the prospects of their institutions and
systems.

The team is also set to meet with auditors
PriceWaterhouseCoopers Zimbabwe.

The meeting with the auditors is
meant to familiarise the fund with issuesof disclosure and transparency in
the financial sector.

The six-member delegation, led by Sharmini
Coorey, also comprises Paul

According to their internal schedule, the team will meet
with Stanbicmanaging director Pindie Nyandoro and Barclays managing director
CharityJinya and their respective credit risk directors.

Coorey's
team is expected to meet with Ben Chikwanha, the managing directorof
Interfin Merchant Bank, Sam Malaba of the Agricultural Development Bank,and
Washington Matsaira of Standard Chartered Bank.

The team is also set
to meet with Jewel Bank boss Nyasha Makuvise, ZimbabweAllied Banking Group
head Stephen Gwasira and Metropolitan Bank head
BenWashaya.

Article IV consultations are held by the fund with
each member country.

Zimbabwe has been in arrears with the IMF since
February 2001.

As of February 15 this year, the country's debt
amounted to Special DrawingRights 202 million (US$306 million) or about 57%
of its IMF quota.

The delegation is also expected to meet with the
Bankers Association ofZimbabwe to discuss prospects for the industry as a
whole.

So far the delegation has met with the secretary for Finance
William Manungoand Andrew Bvumbe, secretary for Economic
Development.

The team has also met with the central bank to discuss
monetary policyissues and the exchange rate, capital markets and
concessional lending.

The delegation, which is expected to be in the
country until Friday nextweek, is also set to meet with the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries, theMDC, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange andthe Central Statistical Office.

The
team will also have a meeting with the President's Office to discussland
reform, anti-corruption and anti-monopolies.

World Bank avails US$87 000 for HIV/AidsGrace
KomboraTHE World Bank has disbursed US$87 000 to six Zimbabwean
organisations whichtook part in the Country Development Marketplace
competion to come up withlocal initiatives in the fight against HIV and
Aids.

The competition was launched by the World Bank's country office for
Zimbabwelast year. The competition seeks to empower organisations and
localcommunities to find their own solutions to assist in the fight against
HIVand Aids.

The winners in the competion were Alois Haene
Memorial Trust in Gweru,Deseret International Zimbabwe, Youth Alive Zimbabwe
in Mutare, DevelopmentAid From People to People in Zimbabwe, National Blood
Transfusion Service inMutare and Student Partnership
Worldwide.

Acting country manager for World Bank Zimbabwe, Sudhir
Chitale, said theirinstitution was strengthening its commitment to HIV/Aids
initiatives inZimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi through the Country Development
Marketplacecompetition.

Chitale said the iniative was aimed at
giving NGOs and local communitiessolutions to fight HIV and Aids on their
own.

"This was an initiative to give the opportunity to NGOs, local
communitiesand groups to bring to life their own solutions to this fight,"
Chitalesaid.

Chitale urged all winners to be guided by the
sub-theme: "Turning Ideas intoaction - thinking outside the
box."

"We are relying on your home grown ideas to help mitigate the
impact of HIVand Aids," Chitale told the winners.

Bank workers seek 200% salary hikeGodfrey
MarawanyikaA MAJOR collective bargaining dispute is looming between the
Zimbabwe Banksand Allied Workers Union (Zibawu) and the Bankers Association
of Zimbabwe(Baz) over demands for salary increments of between 150-200%. The
newsalaries should take effect from next month.

Real wages in the
sector have fluctuated between 1995 and 2005.

According to a draft
paper of the collective bargaining exercise, theminimum wage in the sector
as of April was $2,4 million which the workerssaid was too low given the
high cost of living.

"Following the decline in inflation the real
wage index rose from 103,3 to170,7 between 2003 and 2004 but wage reviews
have not been consistent withthe rate of inflation as indicated by the
movement of the poverty datumline," Zibawu says.

"Inflation has
eaten away the gains made by the wage review of January 2005.The real wage
is expected to continue to be eroded by inflation which hasstarted rising
again from 123,7% to 129,1% between March and April 2005." Itwas reported
this week to stand at 144,4%.

It is understood the central bank has
said the employees should be given120%.

Financial analysts also
said given last year's tremors in the bankingsector, few firms were keen to
part with more than 110% in salaryincrements.

Zibawu said the
economy was facing a crisis of unprecedented levels, whichwarranted a salary
review ranging from 150-200%.

It said Zimbabweans could no longer
enjoy their basic rights to food,health, education, shelter, affordable
transport, employment and incomesecurity among others.

"It is in the interest of both the employee
and the employer to sustainablyimprove the standard of living of the
employee. For the employee, risingreal income improves his/her wellbeing,
while for the employer, good workingconditions are a stimulus for increased
performance, dutifulness andloyalty.

In this regard, it is important
to trace the trends in real wages to checkwhether the wellbeing of the
employees is improving over time."

The poverty datum line for a
family of six has been set at $3,1 million permonth.

The poverty
datum line is calculated based on the consumer price index,which is used to
compute inflation.

Skewed economic programme for
parliamentMOST of the address by President Robert Mugabe at the official
opening ofthe first session of the 6th Parliament of Zimbabwe last week
directly, orindirectly, related to Zimbabwe's very distressed
economy.

He spelt out the government's programme for the current session
ofparliament, with a very pronounced emphasis upon economic issues,
whilstconcurrently he voiced comment upon some of the presently
prevailingcharacteristics of the economy.

That he did so would be
acknowledged by almost all as having been verynecessary in view of the
appallingly distressed condition of the economy.However, whilst some of
government's intended actions, and some of hiscomments, were very
commendable, others displayed the extent to whichgovernment continues to
disregard economic realities and necessities. Alltoo many of the stated
issues demonstrated, yet again, government's obduracyand inability to
recognise the need for policy changes, if a genuineeconomic turnaround is to
be achieved.

Referring to the increasing frequency of drought conditions
in Zimbabwe, thepresident said that "there is now an ever-growing need to
seriously moveaway from the current over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture.
Our collectiveand urgent focus should now be on effective efforts, aimed at
exploiting ourvast water reserves for irrigation." He stated that to this
end, anIrrigation Development Authority will therefore be
established.

One must wonder why such an authority is necessary (over and
above creatingyet more "jobs for the boys"), when Zimbabwe already has a
ministry, withinthe President's office, of Water Resources and
Infrastructural Development,and also has a Ministry of Agriculture. Why is a
third body required to dothat for which two others already exist? If those
others are not doing thatwhich they should do, then they must be
restructured, instead of adding anunaffordable further entity to an already
grossly monolithic infrastructure.

Moreover, all the water in the world
will not achieve required agriculturalproduction unless Zimbabwe sorts out
the mess it has made of theagricultural sector. It has displaced thousands
of farmers of provencapability, productivity and resources, with a multitude
of intendingfarmers lacking in those resources and, in some instances, of
those skillsrequired to achieve productivity, whilst others do not even have
the driveand initiative to achieve production. They only seek to enrich
themselves bypillaging the crops, the equipment and the stores of those
displaced.

Concurrently, government has repeatedly failed to ensure the
timeousavailability of promised agricultural inputs. And throughout, it has
deludeditself, and the populace, with dubious and mythical projections
ofagriculture output, jeopardising effective and meaningful
governmentaleconomic planning and central bank management of foreign
exchange.

This did not suffice to satisfy government's misguided
agriculturalpolicies, for the president further stated that in order "to
stimulatedevelopment of the horticultural sector" - the country's third
largestagricultural foreign currency earner after tobacco and cotton - a
bill forthe establishment of a Horticultural Production Authority will be
put beforeparliament.

Is this yet another creation of "jobs for the
boys"? Should not suchstimulation of horticultural development have
emanated, long ago andcontinuously, from the Ministry of Agriculture, acting
cooperatively andcohesively with the Horticultural Promotion Council, the
Commercial Farmers'Union, the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers' Union, and other
like bodies?Instead, another authority is to be created, intensifying the
alreadymassive over-regulation of the economy, and placing still another
burdenupon a penniless fiscus!

On the other side of the coin, some
satisfaction can be drawn from thepresident's statement that, with regard to
the land reform programme,"government is correcting residual irregularities
thereof and addressing theissue of properties falling under Bilateral
Investment Protection Agreements".

The irregularities were many,
including the injustices perpetrated upon thefarmers who were unilaterally
deprived of their possessions and theirlivelihoods, were harassed, attacked,
humiliated and denuded of fundamentalhuman rights. And, whilst there was no
legitimate justification for themass, continuing, expropriation of lawfully
owned farms, a particularlypronounced "irregularity" was the seizure of
farms supposedly protectedunder Bilateral Investment Protection Agreements.
By taking such farms,government reneged on those agreements. Not only was
doing sointernationally untenable and in conflict with the fundamental
principles ofgood governance, honesty and sound relations with the world at
large, butbreach of such agreements dissuades foreign direct investment,
criticallynecessary for Zimbabwe's economic recovery.

Having
announced the intended creation of two new, unaffordable andunnecessary
governmental entities, the president proceeded to announce yetanother,
saying that "government will also establish an independent NationalIncomes
and Pricing Commission to coordinate the harmonisation of incomesand pricing
issues". Despite the recurrent failures over most of the past 25years to
regulate prices, government remains determined to do so. Pricecontrols and
price regulation are assured stimuli of commodity shortages,black market
operations, and inflation, as against the misguidedgovernmental perceptions
that they will contain inflation and cater forconsumer interests.

The
world over, the only effective ways of achieving containment of priceshave
been the stimulation of competition and the promotion and facilitationof
enhanced productivity. Instead of creating yet another ineffectual
orcounterproductive "talk-shop", government should be intensifying its
effortsto achieve a sound social contract between it, the private sector
andlabour, via the Tripartite Negotiating Forum. Such contract can only
endure,if other measures are implemented successfully to transform the
economy,inclusive of reduction of the annualised rate of inflation to
single-digitlevels.

Mugabe's bungling weighing us
down"IN a series of deft moves, government overhauled its image from a
negativeone as the destroyer of the common person's livelihood to one of a
maker andimprover of the common man's options, indeed from a destroyer to a
builderand repairer of livelihoods."

This is the callous verdict of
one Nathaniel Manheru on the impact of theongoing destruction of so-called
illegal settlements in urban areas. Thealleged deft move is the announcement
by government that it would allocateresidential stands to those who lost
their property.

But in his attempt to defend the indefensible, Manheru
forgets some of thepeople who lost their properties were retrenchees and
pensioners who hadinvested their last cent on those structures. Some of them
cannot afford tobuild on the new stands. Many of them now sleep in the open
and have nofood. Can somebody take Manheru on a drive to Caledonia please?
If he isable to pass through the cordon of riot police and still has a human
heart,he may even shed a tear.

But then we are dealing here with
someone who has not visited a singletownship where this destructive
government has deployed its bulldozers andgraders. All he has seen are ZBC's
sanitised pictures of people "voluntarily" destroying their homes. Can there
be greater irony?

Later on comes the mother of all contradictions:
"Outside shards of brokenstalls," he writes almost unconsciously, "outside
broken livelihoods standsout one haunting question. Why so many vendors?
What economics are impliedby the swelling army of vendors?"

To most
people that would pass for a rhetorical question. But Manheru is soinsulated
from poverty that he doesn't know why there are so many vendors inurban
areas and along the country's major highways. The answer is simple:man's
instinct for self-preservation in the face of adversity.

The economy has
been in freefall for the past five years and the informalsector provided the
net for those dropping from the formal sector. YetManheru wants to condemn
the victims for their situation. But beyond thishypocrisy, Manheru is aware
that this is not "a normal economy". In fact heshould admit this is not the
economy government inherited at Independence in1980.

'Private media
mum on Hotelgate", declared Tafataona Mahoso on Sunday. Thiswas in reference
to a list of hotels and other tourism facilities whichReserve Bank governor
Gideon Gono said had not remitted all their foreigncurrency to the
authorities. Mahoso lurched on to this list and startedtalking of "corrupt
hotels which have been sabotaging the economy".

Not so fast comrade.
These are mere allegations. How many hotels have beenconvicted by courts
other than Mahoso's? The media would be irresponsible touse Gono's list to
convict hotels of wrongdoing. The same goes for claimsthat most flea market
operators were dealing in foreign currency. How muchhas the police blitz
brought into state coffers after four weeks ofsearching, Dr Mahoso? Are we
to assume that the police are converting theforeign currency to their own
use?

Apparently inspired more by a blind zeal for control than sense,
Mahosoclaimed the action by the hotels "threatens all three pillars of the
countrywe call Zimbabwe: the nation, the people and the state".

"The
state," declared Mahoso imperiously, "wants independence andsovereignty, the
capacity to organise, direct and influence the entirespace, assets and
infrastructure called Zimbabwe, and the right to determinehow this Zimbabwe
relates to the rest of the world in all its political,economic, cultural and
financial aspects."

Well said, but is that intrusion good for the
country, that the state shouldpoke its nose in "the entire space" of our
lives? Isn't too much regulationa sign that government has failed to create
a conducive environment forbusinesses to operate in freely? And our
"analyst" Mahoso still thinks moreis better?

We were happy to be
reassured last week by President Mugabe that "we willnever collapse". The
president said some people and countries were always"contriving" to bring
Zimbabwe down but they "will never succeed as thecountry is resilient", he
boasted. He didn't say how we came about themisfortune to be so
assailed.

But methinks he has courted more difficulty for himself than
for the countryand is in fact weighing the country down because of his
mismanagement of theeconomy. The crude displacement of thousands of
small-scale businessoperators and the destruction of homes could only make
things worse.

As for "not collapsing", we wonder what facet of life
stands unscathed byhis government's depredations except for State House
where everything mustbe in plentiful supply. All around things have
collapsed, from commercialagriculture to education and health
facilities.

Last week we ran an article on Justice Hilary Squires who was
brought out ofretirement by President Thabo Mbeki to hear the Schabir Shaik
corruptioncase in Durban recently. Squires was a former Rhodesian Minister
of Justiceand High Court judge.

What we omitted to say was that he
was also the judge who acquitted DumisoDabengwa and Lookout Masuku of
treason charges in 1983. He said Dabengwa wasone of the most impressive
witnesses he had seen before him.

Interestingly, Minister of Home Affairs
at the time, Herbert Ushewokunze,denounced Squires as a
reactionary.

What is little known is that Squires had been Ushewokunze's
lawyer inBulawayo in 1970 when the future minister had been charged with
receivingstolen goods. Drugs we gather. Squires defended him in that case
before hisclient fled the country.

Caesar Zvayi had a very
interesting article on Squires in the Herald onTuesday. He was a Rhodie to
the core, was Zvayi's conclusion and Ian Smithappointed him to his cabinet
because of his "white supremacist excesses".

This was evident when he
became leader of the Rhodesian parliament in 1977.

"That year he warned
nationalist protestors and freedom fighters that theiractions would be
tolerated as long as they were of nuisance value but whenthey threatened the
establishment they would be crushed ruthlessly," wroteZvayi.

A
government that claims to have brought freedom to Zimbabwe appears to
haveturned the tables. Now Zimbabweans are not even allowed to make a
nuisanceof themselves, let alone threaten the establishment. A black
governmentcannot tolerate benign protests by its own people. We have come
full circleand gone beyond Squires' threat. We bet Squires would love to
hear of thislasting legacy that a free Zimbabwe has embraced with open
arms.

The Business Herald has been taking its sunshine journalism to new
heights.Last week it carried a headline announcing "Summit endorses
Homelink". Thiswas a reference to the World Economic Forum's Africa Economic
Summit in CapeTown which identified Africans living in the diaspora as key
players in thecontinent's economic transformation.

Apart from the
material inserted by the Herald's own journalists praisingHomelink, there
was no evidence of the scheme receiving "overwhelmingendorsement" by the
summit. It was a case of imaginative editing. Thesession had discussed
diasporan revenues in general terms. If there wasspecific focus it was on
Ghana and Nigeria.

Which reminds us, last week we were told that after
measures put in place bythe Reserve Bank, fuel queues would soon be a thing
of the past.

They are indeed. Now there is no fuel, there are no longer
any queues!

Have we had an explanation yet from the president's
spin-doctors why he hasappointed to office individuals who failed to win
seats in the Marchelection when he gave an undertaking to the
electoratethat losers would not be accommodated?

Why, when such a
blatant contradiction emerges, is the president notrequired to provide an
explanation? This is the very definition ofunaccountable
governance.

Then we had Nathan Shamuyarira claiming that the resurrection
of the Senatewas designed to make Zimbabweans happy. Since when has that
been one of ZanuPF's concerns? How can they pauperise a country and then
claim they arethere to make people happy?

Do they now acknowledge
that they were making Zimbabweans unhappy when theyabolished the upper house
in 1990? That this was the wrong decision? Or, aswe suspect, is Shamuyarira
talking nonsense and thinking, like Mugabe, thatit doesn't
matter.

Muckraker's question: Who pressed Zanu PF into setting up the
ZimbabweElectoral Commission, reviving the Senate, and withdrawing the NGOs
Bill?Since whendid Zanu PF decide to reformitself?

So the
magic formula has now been unveiled. Anybody facing a littledifficulty in
court - like flouting exchange control regulations - need onlysay that they
did it in the national interest, which they of course define,and that the
public should not be allowed to hear of the details.

Speaking in parables
is now acceptable testimony, it would seem!

How very convenient. But is
this self-serving nonsense what our judicialsystem is prepared to
entertain?

And why does the individual so generously exonerated remain
incarcerated ifhe was performing a national service?

Muckraker had a
call from a former UZ law student recently who recounted aninteresting class
discussion a few years ago on the merits of bailconditions set by the
courts. The caller remembered a fellow student arguingvigorously that the
state should legislate to restrict bail conditions toprevent accused persons
enjoying an unwarranted freedom.